My tips for learning Spanish 2

[Manuel]

Do you ever say stuff in your mind like “I am going to be late!”, “Boy, I’m hungry today” or “I need to go to the grocery store”? If so, then you are talking. You are just not talking out loud.

But here is what’s very important: the thinking process that is going on in your head when you are talking to yourself is exactly the same as when you would be saying these words out loud to someone else.

In other words, if you can think a phrase, you can also say it, either out loud or silently in your mind.

If you can think the phrase “Tengo mucha hambre” (“I am very hungry.”) and say that silently to yourself in your mind, you could also say that out loud to another person.

To put it yet another way, thinking in words = talking.

So what you need to start doing in order to learn how to talk Spanish is to think in Spanish. Whatever you will be able to think in Spanish, you will be able to say in Spanish. And you don’t need anyone to speak to, because someone’s reply is irrelevant. What is important is that you learn to express your thoughts in your mind with Spanish words.

Now, you may be thinking “But I can hardly form any correct sentences at all! How can I even think in Spanish then? I am not ready!”

The fact is, you can start thinking in Spanish from the very beginning. So let’s talk about the how.

The basic rule is this:

Immediately apply whatever new thing you learn

By “apply” in this case I mean use it in thinking to yourself.

For example, let’s say you have just started learning the personal pronouns (I, you, he/her, we, you, they) and that’s ALL you know in Spanish. Obviously you cannot form any complete sentences with this knowledge because you haven’t even learned any verbs yet. So how could you possibly think in Spanish if this is all you know? Remember the basic rule: APPLY whatever new thing you have just learned, and apply in this case means to use it in thinking.

Now, what IS thinking? It’s basically using your mind to process your perceptions. In the above example you have learned the Spanish word for “I” (“yo”) and “he” (“el”). Now suppose you are sitting in a café, and you spot a man sitting a few feet away. This is what you could do at that moment: look at the man and THINK (by saying it silently to yourself in your mind) “el”, meaning of course “he”. That’s ALL you do at first. You are connecting in your mind the word “el” to the perception of seeing a man. After that you could think of yourself or even point to yourself and THINK “yo”. Once again, you are connecting in your mind the word “yo” to the perception of yourself.

This is the basic procedure. And it starts with something as simple as connecting one Spanish word in your mind to whatever the meaning of that word is in the real world.

Let’s say after a few weeks of studying you have learned some new words and you learned the word for “knife”, which is “el cuchillo”. Again, remember the basic rule: immediately apply whatever new thing you learn. So how could you use the word knife in thinking? Suppose you are in your kitchen and you are preparing lunch and you pick up a knife. Voila! You hold the knife, look at it and THINK “el cuchillo.”

As you add new words and verbs to your vocabulary you can create more and more complex thoughts. Suppose you learn the word for “goodlooking”, which is “guapo”, but you haven’t yet learned the verb “to be.” So you can’t think to yourself “he is goodlooking.” As you progress in the language you will encounter many instances where you won’t know all the words to say exactly what you want to say. In those cases, just say/think what comes closest.

For example, imagine you are sitting in a café and there is a man sitting close to you, this time he is goodlooking. You can’t think to yourself “he is goodlooking” in Spanish, but what is the closest thing you CAN think? “el guapo” (“he goodlooking”).

It’s basically a sort of Tarzan-style jungle-speak J, but that’s perfectly fine to start with. The important thing is to immediately use whatever you learn, not wait until you can use it in a grammatically perfect sentence. The goal is not to speak perfect Spanish, but to be understood.

If you approach thinking in Spanish in this manner, you won’t have to wait until you know a bunch of verbs and other things to form complicated sentences. Just use every little thing you learn immediately in your mind by speaking to yourself silently.

The more you learn, the more complicated your thoughts can become. Later in your development you’ll start saying things to yourself like “Esta lata está vacía” (“this can is empty”) when you finish your can of Coke etc. The possibilities are endless. Just use your creativity. The more often you do it, the better you will get at it.

At some point you will know enough to form real sentences in your mind and you can start thinking about more abstract things. You can just start talking to yourself about topics that you’d normally talk to someone else about. For example, you could talk about a vacation that you took, but instead of telling someone else about it, you simply talk to yourself about it in your own mind, as if you were telling someone else. If you can do that somewhat fluently, then you know you are really improving. That’s why talking to yourself in Spanish is also a great indicator of what your level is because you will immediately know where you are hesitating in your thoughts, what words are lacking in your vocabulary, what grammatical constructions you have trouble with etc.

Remember, whatever you can tell yourself in Spanish, you can tell to someone else in Spanish.

One word of warning though. When you don’t know a lot of Spanish yet, it is VERY tiring to try to think in it at first! It will take a lot of effort, it will be frustrating at times when you have to learn some new grammar or are confused about some word’s meaning etc. So especially in the beginning, take it easy on yourself. Don’t try to push yourself to think in Spanish all day because you’ll just burn yourself out. I gave myself a few slight headaches when I tried to push myself too much. J

In the beginning, when you can’t form a lot of complicated sentences yet, just use whatever Spanish you know to think to yourself whenever you have the opportunity (like, for example, saying “el cuchillo” to yourself when you pick up a knife.)

As your knowledge of grammar increases and you can start to create more complete sentences, these are some things you can practice:

• Take a word from your personal vocabulary list and try to invent a thought with it in your mind and say it silently to yourself. E.g., let’s say you have the word “casa” (meaning “house”) on your list. Practice thinking to yourself stuff like “Voy a casa”, “Mi casa es muy grande”, “¿Es ésta tu casa?”. As your knowledge of Spanish grows, your thoughts can become increasingly more complex: “Tengo una casa llena de gente”, “Yo estoy construyendo una casa” etc. If you can’t think of any phrase, just enter the word in that sentence maker online that I gave you. It will spark your creativity.
• When you can form more and more complete phrases, start talking to yourself about things that you normally talk to others about. Use your imagination and think of every situation in which you talk in your own language and then try to do that in your imagination in Spanish. Examples: talking with shop clerks, talking with your friends, talking about a vacation you just came back from, talking to your husband, talking to your kids, talking with strangers, ordering in a restaurant or bar, ordering a pizza, going to the movies, etc. Think about what you say in those situations in your own language and then imagine yourself saying all those things in Spanish. This way you’ll learn exactly where you are lacking in knowledge/vocabulary and you’ll be able to add these words to your personal vocabulary list (knowing that these are words that are very useful for you to learn because you use them in your own life.)
• As you improve more and more, start debating a topic with yourself in your mind. For example, take up a position on a certain topic, like “Women are stronger than men” and then just explore both sides of it in Spanish. Once you can do this well, you’ll have NO problem blabbing someone’s head off in Spanish! I must confess I haven’t reached this level myself yet, but I’m getting better.
• When you reach the stage where you have a good vocabulary and grasp of verbs so that you can form phrases at a reasonable level, I recommend to start thinking 100% of the time in Spanish during certain periods of the day. At first, just do it for 30 minutes or an hour, then gradually extend that time until you can think in Spanish for an entire day (even though you might not have the same level of thinking as you would have in English.) Once you can function normally during a typical day of your life while thinking in Spanish 100% of the time (and talking English with everyone!), you’ve pretty much arrived at a basic threshold of competency. From there, it’s just about growing your vocabulary and improving your fluency and/or learning more colloquial expressions.
• Once you can function well in your daily life while thinking in Spanish 100% of the time, I recommend you do that a lot. I remember that at one point in my life I found myself thinking in English automatically for a while, even though I was always speaking Dutch. The reason was that I was so immersed in English because of all the English books I was reading, the Hollywood movies I was watching, the English speaking people I was talking to online etc. that I just started thinking in English without any conscious effort. I didn’t just think in English when I spoke to English people, I started thinking in English throughout my day. It was quite interesting. I became so used to it that at one point I started to express myself easier in English than in Dutch. If you always express your opinions in a certain language, for example, you become used to the way you say it in that language. If you then try to say the same thing in another language, you often have to change how you say it a little bit, because many things you cannot translate literally from one language to another, as you already know. And I had become so used to thinking in English that it started to feel even more comfortable than my native language! Even though my vocabulary in Dutch is much greater. I have to add, though, that I am one of those crazy people that is always talking to himself inside his mind,lol. So that’s probably what caused it. But it does show how effective thinking in another language can be!

Adapt your environment to Spanish
The more you surround yourself with the Spanish language, the better. The book Fluent in three months also mentioned that, saying you have to “live” the language. You already mentioned you listen to Spanish radio which is great, but there’s more you can do. Listening to music with Spanish lyrics is of course good, too.

But the thing that I most recommend is to start doing the Spanish version of everything you do now in your own language, as far as possible.

What do you do/use every day?

Do you use a shopping list when you go grocery shopping? Write it in Spanish from now on.

Do you make to-do lists? Do them in Spanish.

Do you have a smartphone? Change its language to Spanish

Do you check the weather online? Use a Spanish-language weather service (for your local weather in the UK obviously!)

Do you check the BBC? Use the Spanish language version (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo )
There are more examples so I can’t list them all. Just use your creativity.

Grammar
Regarding this topic I tend to disagree with the author of the book Fluent in three months. You have to decide for yourself what the best approach is in the end. I will just explain my view of it here.

He says that grammar should not be the main focus for beginners, it should be practicing speaking, but I disagree. I think grammar is enormously helpful in understanding how to construct phrases. I know many people don’t really like studying grammar, they think of it as some “dry” theoretical jargon that is difficult etc. But I think that stems more from the WAY it is being taught and/or used, rather than from the grammar itself.